Orang-Utans expedition

January 24, 2010 at 11:59 am

If I say orange hairy monkeys what do you say? Orang utans obviously! Spending 3 days on a wooden cruising boat to spot them in the wild was a reason good enough to take the Pelni 2 more times… We took the boat from makassar to Surabaya and then boarded another one the next day in direction to Kumai, southern Kalimantan. Even if that is not logical, that was cheaper to spend 2 days inside the belly of these boats full of chain smokers, screaming kids, corrupted crew and coackroaches than flying to Tanjung Puting. We already described the atmosphere inside these boats so if you missed it, just have a look at previous pages dealing with the hellish means of transportation in Indonesia. We arrived at sevenish in the town of Kumai, the night was already dark, the stalls were serving food in the streets, people were chatting happily and we settled down in “Garuda” hostel.

Whatever new place you arrive in, it is always the same: You get off the bus or boat and leave the station. Everything looks foreign, unknown and distant and you walk in the streets looking for a place where to leave your bag. You may find it easily or have to walk for hours before finding the right place. Once you closed the door, you start getting familiar with your room, check the bed, look at the bathroom, take the books and things out of the smaller bag you wear at the front to keep only the essential (valuables, guidebooks and bottle of water) and leave the room checking twice the lock of the door. Then you smile to the receptionnist or owner of the place who is the only person you know in this city. This place just became the center of the city in your mental map. This is where you start your day and crash on your mattress at night. Then the shops around the hostel make themselves some room in your memory: you know that the bottle of water is cheaper at the third shop on the left after leaving the hostel than at the second shop and that the restaurant down the street is cheap and good. The taxi drivers stop harassing you trying to sell any type of service because they have seen you already couple of times and you declined each time their invitations. This city is now smaller than it looked, people leave you in peace and you feel like you belong here at least for some days until you move somewhere else where you will do just about the same.

The next day, we were in the internet shop and Ben entered the place. We were in the city for the same thing, the hairy friends and he already found a boat and made a deal so we just negotiated the price for 2 more persons with the captain and were due to leave the next morning at 8am.

The boat was big enough for 3 guests, all wooden made, painted in blue and white with the inscription “Mama I” at the back. There was a sun deck with long chairs and small mattresses under the sheltered part of the boat where we could lay down and look at the surroundings. The toilets/shower were at the back of the boat where there was a pump taking the water from the river. Because the door and walls were not very high, when one was in the shower or peeing (for men) we could still see him and talk to him, the distance being quite short between the deck and the back of the boat. That was funny during the evening when telling stories and drinking Arak to continue conversing when somebody was at the same time peeing in the river from the toilets. The first day, we went to camp Leakey where on arrival we were greeted by two gibbons, couple of pigs and Siswy, a female orang-utan busy at this moment making an unbrella from tree leaves. That was nice to be just some meters away from her, observing her hands, feet, hairs, and face. The orang-utans differ only by less than 5% in their DNA from a human which makes them quite interesting to look at when thinking about the small difference between them and us. You can’t help asking yourself if they can understand you, do they have the same feelings, their look is very confusing. We were then taken by our guide (our captain being a former ranger) to the feeding platform where the rangers disposed fruits and milk in plastic buckets. We wouldn’t have to wait long and some orang-utans would come down the trees to take as many bananas as possible in their mouths and hands to go eating them suspended in lianas some meters above our heads. There were some baby monkeys who were more curious looking around them and the older monkeys who knew the feeding process and were trying to get the best out of it consuming the food and milk as quickly as possible before the others do the same. The king was here as well, with his large forehead and huge cheekbones, symbols of power and strength for the males and sensual and attracting for females. He behaved as a king, having all rights on his subjects and each one knew its position and seemed to respect him. Later when a young male would grow stronger and bigger, he may defy him to take his possessions and become the new king in a mercyless fight finishing often by the death of the weaker.

We had a walk in the park and watched a documentary about Kusasi, the previous king and enjoyed the presence of all these animals around us for the rest of the day, observing them and taking pictures. When we returned to the boat, Siswi and her baby followed us so we gave them some bananas they grabbed from our hands. Their skin is very strong but soft at the same time and their hairs hard like those of a pig. We would talk for the rest of the evening, drinking rice wine brought from Kumai by the captain on our request and have good laughs. We would over these 3 days, go to 3 different camps where they would have feeding platforms with the same ritual but different monkeys. Because the first camp where we went to was upstream, we went down the river the 2 following days little by little enjoying the view from the sun deck. The water was very dark due to plants losing their colour when staying underwater thereof tainting the river. The trees on the banks of the river were tall and the vegetation dense, there were many birds around, you could hear them in the morning singing once the frogs of the night went quiet. The sight from the deck was great, we spotted hornbills, a wild orang-utan and proboscis monkeys. The food was excellent on board thanks to the cook who came with us. She prepared delicious meals during these 3 days which made this boat not only a great place where to sleep and observe the animals and landscapes but my favourite restaurant in Indonesia.

We returned unwillingly to Kumai to continue our little adventures, full of souvenirs from this boat trip and the orang-utans.